Table of Contents

Accessing LibreELEC

There are two different ways how you are able to access the box you installed LibreELEC on. One way is via SSH and the other is via your preferred file explorer using the Samba shares. Both ways are explained below. Please choose the tab of the way you want to use

Note: For all explanations, you will need to know your IP address of your machine.

This can be found at Kodis GUI under settings → system information → network

SSH

Note: SSH has to be enabled at the very first start of LE (installation wizard). Otherwise the SSH service isn't available.

Depending on the operating system you use, you either are able to use additional software (Putty), or the command line interface (CLI) to use SSH. We will explain all ways here.

All Platforms

On all platforms you are able to use a SSH client. Putty is available for all systems (Windows, Ubuntu and Mac). The usage on all systems is the same. Please see Windows SSH using PuTTY on Kodi Wiki for further details or take a look at the video below.

Linux (e.g. Ubuntu) and MacOS

For both systems you are able to use the CLI to access the LibreELEC machine. Open up a terminal and enter:

ssh root@enter_ip_adress_here

You will be asked if you are sure you want to connect to this computer. Type:

yes

after this you will be asked for a password. Enter

libreelec

You'll not see any characters while entering the password. That's normal on Unix based systems.If everything works well you will see a terminal prompt like this:

To close the session just type:

exit

at the CLI and you will be logged out.

The following video will explain and show all the steps explained above.

Samba/SMB

Under construction

The History of Samba

In the last four major versions of Windows, all require different solutions on how-to make a SMB connection. This has been the result from Samba v1 being at first a very open file protocol that also supported network browsing, to now Windows 10 using Samba v2.x+ with no network browsing support AND requiring full credentials, meaning a user WITH as password. As far as we know, Windows 8.1 and 7, as well as earlier versions still work on the SMBv1 basis where network browsing is still available.

Then throw macOS and occasionally a Linux variant into the frame. Then sprinkle the three major evolutions of Samba that could be involved. Then mix it up whether LibreELEC is the server or the client. Ultimately, there are 100+ possible combinations of problems and no simple way to provide an answer.

As from LibreELEC 8.2.3, Kodi uses SMBv2 as the default Samba client specification. This will mean, that when you want to connect to a Samba server in your network, you will have to use the “Add a network location…” method, and specify the server credentials manually.

There is currently still the option of lowering the Samba protocol version down to version v1 in the LibreELEC Settings Add-on, just in case your other network devices are incapable of working with SMBv2. But do see this as a temporary measure, as your network security could be severely compromised. The worldwide attack by the WannaCry virus in 2017 has made that quite clear.

Also, when connecting to LibreELEC's built-in Samba server, you may have to use the following credentials, username: libreelec and password: libreelec

Windows

For using the SMB shares with the Windows File-Explorer, just enter the following at the address bar: